Food for Thought – April 2014

A little while ago I found this affirmation of peace and justice in a book I can’t remember the title of. All I can remember is that a Christian women in Asia wrote this confession. I keep coming back to it when things get rough and messy to remember what we believe in and live for.

Affirmation of peace and justice

I believe in God, who is love and who has given the earth to all people.

I believe in Jesus Christ, who came to heal us, and to free us from all forms of oppression.

I believe in the Spirit of God, who works in and through all who are turned towards the truth.

I believe in the community of faith, which is called to be at the service of all people.

I believe in God’s promise to finally destroy the power of sin in us all, and to establish the kingdom of justice and peace for all mankind.

I do not believe in the right of the strongest, nor the force of arms, nor the power of oppression.

I believe in human rights, in the solidarity of all people, in the power of non-violence.

I do not believe in racism, in the power that comes from wealth and privilege, or in any established order that enslaves.

I believe that all men and women are equally human, that order based on violence and injustice is not order.

I do not believe that war and hunger are inevitable and peace unattainable.

I believe in beauty of simplicity, in love with open hands, in peace on earth.

I do not believe that suffering needs to be in vain, that death is the end, that the disfigurement of the world is what God intended.

But I dare to believe, always and in spite of everything, in God’s power to transform and transfigure, fulfilling the promise of a new heaven and a new earth where justice and peace will flourish.